Chinese Gung Fu by Bruce Lee

This is the book that Bruce Lee had intended to publish as an in-depth follow up to his Chinese Gung Fu. Prior to his death, he had written the majority of the text, which explores such topics as yin-yang as it applies to martial arts, Eastern and Western fitness methodologies, and martial arts and self-defense techniques. The manuscript was completed by martial arts expert John Little in cooperation with the Bruce Lee estate. 100+ photos.
you can download chinese gung fu bruce lee Book for free from the download link.
free download here, just click: http://downloads.ziddu.com/download/5606779/ChineseGungFubyBruceLee.rar.html

wing cun and yim wing cun

Yim Wing-chun is a historical character, often cited in Wing Chun legends as the first Wing Chun master
Wing-Chun, though a person's name in Chinese, literally means "spring chant" or alternatively "forever spring", or substituted with the character for "eternal springtime"

During the Ching Dynasty, the Shaolin Temple was a refuge for the loyalists of the prior Ming Dynasty who sought to “overthrow the Ching and restore the Ming”. The Shaolin Temple also took in lay-disciples and taught them the temple's martial art systems in a bid to aid the loyalists' cause.

Concerned by this, the Imperial Court dispatched agents to infiltrate the Shaolin Temple and learn its martial arts systems. When these agents attained mastery, they poisoned the monks and burnt down the Shaolin Temple. In the resulting carnage, only a handful escaped. The Abbess Ng Mui was one of 5 elders who escaped.

Ng Mui knew that the traitors of the Shaolin Temple had mastered its arts and that despite her own skill and mastery, she also knew that she would be no match for their youth, strength and speed. In order to counter these traitors, Ng Mui created a new martial art that would be effective against stronger opponents. To aid the rebel cause, she also designed it so that it could be learnt in a relatively short period of time.

Legend has it that Ng Mui's first disciple of this fighting system was a woman named Yim Wing Chun who used it to fight and defeat the local bully who tried to force Wing Chun to marry him. She eventually taught this fighting system to her husband Leung Bok Chau who named the art after her.

The system was eventually passed down to 2 performers belonging to the Red Boat opera troupe; Wong Wa Bo and Leung Yee Tai. These 2 masters had very different body shapes and temperaments. As such their manifestation of this art was very different. Their student, a skilled physician named Leung Jan benefited from this and became known as a skilled fighter in Foshan, Guangdong.

One of Leung Jan's top students was Chan Wah Soon who had many students. In his seventies, he taught a young man named Yip Man, who continued training with Chan Wah Soon until his passing.

Yip Man moved from to Hong Kong to study where he was involved in many fights with his European schoolmates. One day, he challenged an older man, reputed to be a skilled fighter, and was soundly defeated. This man was Leung Jan’s son, Leung Bik.

Yip Man continued his training with and learned the entire system from Leung Bik. Yip Man returned to Foshan but eventually went back to Hong Kong after the Second World War. In 1949, Yip Man started teaching Wing Chun to the public and taught many students until he passed on in 1972.

History continues to be created as Yip Man’s martial-art descendants and practitioners forming lineages from China make their mark in the Wing Chun community.

Who is Yip Man

Yip Man  1 October 1893-2 December 1972, was the first martial arts master (Chinese: Sifu) to teach the Chinese martial art of Wing Chun openly. He had several students who later became martial arts teachers in their own right, including Bruce Lee.

Yip Kai Man was the last Wing Chun student of Chan Wah-shun when he was 70 years old. He was born to Yip Oi Dor and Ng Shui, and was the third of four children. He grew up in a very wealthy family in Foshan, Guangdong, and received an exceptional traditional Chinese education. His older brother was Ip Kai Gak. His older sister was Ip Wan Mei and his younger sister was Ip Wan Hum

When Yip Man was thirteen years old he started learning Wing Chun from Chan Wah-shun. Because of his sifu's old age, Yip Man had to learn much of his skills and techniques from his master's second eldest disciple Ng Chung-sok. Three years into Yip Man’s training Chan Wah-shun died. One of his dying wishes was to have Ng continue training Yip. At the age of 15 Yip man moved to Hong Kong with help from Leung Fut Ting, a relative. At age sixteen, Yip Man attended school at St. Stephen's College in Hong Kong. It was a secondary school for wealthy families and foreigners who lived in Hong Kong. According to Yip Man's two sons, while at St. Stephen's Yip Man intervened after seeing a foreign police officer beating a woman. The story goes that the Police officer tried to strike Yip Man who used his martial arts to strike the officer down, at which point Yip Man and his classmate ran to school. The classmate is said to have told an older man who lived in his apartment block. Yip Man was invited to see this man and the man asked Yip Man what martial art he studied. The man then asked Yip Man to show him his first 2 forms (Sil Lim Tao and Chun Kiu). The man then told Yip man that his forms were “not too great.” Yip Man was then invited to Chi Sau (a form of training that involves controlled attack and defence), Yip Man saw this as an opportunity to prove his Kung Fu was good, but he was beaten after just a few strikes. It turned out that the old man was his master's elder fellow-disciple (and so, by Chinese tradition Yip Man's martial uncle), Leung Bik, son of his master's master Leung Jan. After that encounter, Yip Man continued his training lessons from Leung Bik. By the age of 24, Yip Man had returned to Foshan, his Wing Chun skills tremendously improved.

In Foshan, Yip Man became a policeman. He did not formally run a Wing Chun school, but taught several of his subordinates, his friends and relatives. Amongst those informal students, Lok Yiu, Chow Kwong-yue, Kwok Fu, Lun Kai, Chan Chi-sun and Lui Ying were amongst the most well-known. Chow Kwong-yue was said to be the best student among his peers, but eventually he went into commerce and dropped out of martial arts all together. Kwok Fu and Lun Kai went on to teach students of their own. Wing Chun in the Foshan and Guangdong area was mainly passed down from these two individuals. Chan Chi-sun died young, and Lui Ying went to Hong Kong. Neither of them took any students.

Yip Man went to Kwok Fu's village house during the Japanese Occupation. He only returned to Foshan after the war, to once again take up the job of a police officer. At the end of 1949, after the Communist party won the Chinese civil war, being an officer of the Kuomintang, he decided to escape to Hong Kong without his family when the Communists had come to Foshan.

In Hong Kong, he opened a martial arts school. Initially, business was poor because his students typically stayed for only a couple of months. He moved his school twice, to Hoi Tan Street in Sham Shui Po, and then to Lee Tat Street in Yau Ma Tei. By then, some of his students were skilled enough that they were able to start their own schools. Among the first were Leung Sheung, Lok Yiu, Chu Shong-tin, and Wong Shun Leung.

Some of Yip Man's students and descendants compared their skills with other martial artists in combat. Their victories over other martial artists helped to bolster Yip Man's reputation as a teacher.

In 1967, Yip Man and some of his students established the Hong Kong Ving Tsun Athletic Association. In 1972, Yip Man suffered throat cancer and subsequently died on the 2nd of December that same year.

Within the three decades of his career in Hong Kong, he established a training system for Wing Chun that eventually spread across the world.